Cato the Younger 小加图的自杀

大选结束看完罗马共和国后期那些书后就想，千万千万不能有内战啊！否则共和就死定了。 可是看看这一个星期，这一个周末，就觉得对加图的对抗，自杀有了更深刻的感动。真的面临这种选择，怎么可能不选择战争呢？也许我原先的设想是错的，一旦选出了暴君做共和首领，那么内战就是必然的。一切都太晚了。 Robert Harris 那西塞罗三部曲最后一部里描写庞贝大军全军覆灭后，罗马统一到凯撒手下： For the first time we tasted life under a dictatorship: there were no freedoms any more; no magistrates, no courts; one existed at the whim of the ruler. (平生第一次在一个君主手下讨生活：再也没有了自由，没有法官，没有法庭，生死都在君主的一念之间） 这就是现在我没法继续读"Wolf Hall"的原因，那种全部朝廷大大小小都赔小心取悦一个国君的情形太震撼了。 加图是元老院里理想主义的领袖。虽然出生贵族但是布衣素食，一丝不苟，坚决不肯为任何事情妥协，不向任何人低头。他只认共和国的原则。西塞罗是个政客，他出身卑微，但是个政治天才，总是想找到两全其美的法子和平解决问题。 在凯撒如日中天的时日里，加图是唯一敢当众和他叫板的。一度西塞罗曾经私下羡慕又无奈的说加图只为自己的理想活，不为共和国的将来着想，不是不自私的。 凯撒跨过卢比孔河后，庞贝带着元老院逃离罗马，后来节节退败。庞贝死后。加图在北非带着一队反抗军继续和凯撒纠缠，最后战败自杀，加图选择了特别残忍的剖腹。很多人不解，认为加图疯了。但是西塞罗不这么想。 Cicero disagreed. "He could have had an easier death. He could have thrown himself from a building, or opened his veins in a warm bath, or taken poison. Instead he chose that particular method --exposing his entrails like a human sacrifice -- to demonstrate the strength of his will and his contempt for Caesar. In philosophical terms it was a good death: the death of a man who feared nothing. Indeed I would go so far as to say he died happy. Neither Caesar, nor any moan, nor anything in the world could touch him." 西塞罗不同意，“他本来可以选择更容易的死法。他可以跳楼，可以切腕，或者用毒药。但是他选择了这一种--掏心掏肺把自己做成一具祭品--来表白他意志之坚以及对凯撒的不屑。从哲学上讲这是一个”善终“：一个无所畏惧的人的死亡方式。我甚至可以再进一步说他含笑九泉。无人可及其项背，包括凯撒。” 熟知凯撒性情的西塞罗明知会激怒大首领还是给小加图写了悼词，最后一句总是能让我流泪。 Sinewy in thought and person; indifferent to what men said of him; scornful of glory, titles and decorations, and even more of those who sought them; defender of laws and freedoms; vigilant in the public interest; contemptuous of tyrants, their vulgarities and presumptions; stubborn, infuriating, harsh, dogmatic; a dreamer, a fanatic, a mystic, a soldier; willing at the last to tear the very organs from his stomach rather than submit to a conqueror --only the Roman Republic could have bred such a man as Cato, and only in the Roman Republic did such a man as Cato desire to live. 心坚体壮，我行我素；不屑荣耀和权名，以及追名逐利的肖小之徒；律法和自由的捍卫者；天下万众的守护者；鄙视暴君和他们的虚荣与放肆；固执， 疏狂，直白，武断；一个理想主义者，一个狂热分子，一个迷一样的人物，一个军人；在最后关头宁可抛肝剥腹也不向独裁者低头--加图，只有罗马共和国才可能孕育出的人物；他，也只肯活在罗马共和国。